A Stitch in Haste

The anti-DUI radicals who believe that there is a constitutional right to "just two beers" will likely love this:

Public safety officials in Mexico City last week announced that they would suspend the capital's drunk driving vigilance program for the nights of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
...
The suspension of drunk-driving vigilance for Christmas and New Year's celebrations is a tradition in the capital, where the practice is known as a "noche libre," or "free night."

And while the idea has its critics, city officials point to statistics to defend the practice. Last Christmas Eve, when drunk drivers were also given a "free night," there were three fatal car accidents, and on New Year's Eve there were two. The average day in the capital sees four fatal accidents, according to the Public Safety Secretariat.

But of course, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not "average nights," so the comparison is invalid -- and potentially lethal.

Certainly overall driving in Mexico City drops noticeably on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so the fact that fatalities also decline is irrelevant. Just as a hypothetical: if noche libre traffic declines 50% and fatalities decline 25%, then that means that noche libre driving is indeed more dangerous and that waiving drunk driving vigilance is indeed more likely to kill. And in any case, a sample size of one is not a reliable statistical analysis. And neither are analyses of minute discrete quantities such as "two, three or four crashes."

But so what? A party's a party, right?

(Via Fark.)

POST SCRIPT: Believe it or not, I've blogged about driving in Mexico City before.